Paul French's Biography

Paul French,
Professor, Department of Physics and Photonics Group,
Imperial College London

Professor Paul French received his BSc (Hons) degree in physics in 1983 and his PhD in laser optics in 1987 from Imperial College, London. Since 1999 he has been a Professor in the Photonics Group of the Physics Department at Imperial College London, where he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow from 1989 until 1994 when he joined the academic staff, serving as Head of the Photonics Group from 2001-2013. He has also worked at the University of New Mexico (1988) and at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ (1990/91). His research has evolved from ultrafast dye and solid-state laser physics to biomedical optics with a particular emphasis on fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) for applications in molecular cell biology, drug discovery and clinical diagnosis. His current portfolio includes the development and application of multidimensional fluorescence imaging technology for super-resolved microscopy, automated high content analysis, endoscopy and tomography, with open source approaches to image data acquisition and analysis. Biomedical applications include label-free imaging and metrology of tissue autofluorescence, automated multiwell plate FLIM and FRET of cell signaling processes and preclinical optical projection tomography and endomicroscopy.

Multidimensional Fluorescence Imaging For High Content Analysis and Preclinical Applications

We are developing multidimensional fluorescence imaging technology with a particular emphasis on fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) across the scales to contrast different molecular species and to map variations in the local fluorophore molecular environment, particularly due to Forster resonant energy transfer (FRET) in order to assay protein interactions or read out genetically expressed FRET biosensors. For high content analysis (HCA) we are implementing automated time-gated FLIM for multiwell plate assays of protein interactions or cellular metabolism. We have applied FLIM FRET HCA to study signalling and disease mechanisms in 2-D and 3-D cell-based assays, including the intracellular measurement of KD to quantify protein interactions. For in vivo preclinical studies, we are combining optical projection tomography (OPT) with FLIM, particularly applied to live zebrafish - from larvae up to adults - and are developing FLIM endoscopy to read out FRET biosensors in murine disease models. We aim to implement our multidimensional fluorescence imaging technology using open source software tools for instrument control, data acquisition, analysis and management and to provide lists of equipment components to enable other users to replicate our instrumentation for application to their own biological questions. Our open source FLIM analysis software, FLIMfit which provides rapid global fitting capabilities and is available as an OMERO client and our FLIM HCA and OPT instrumentation are controlled by µManager.